"Pitch" – a buzzword borrowed from the advertising industry – is a term some of the “cooler types” in other industries like to throw around.

It’s also close to my most despised term.

Why?

Ask any customer, client or professional tender evaluator if they like to be “pitched” to . . . and you’ll be treated to a range of impassioned responses with a clear central theme:  Just like you, clients and procurement professionals don’t like to be “sold” (what they do like, is to think they are making balanced, well-informed procurement decisions).

They certainly don’t relish being forced to listen to a salesy, supplier-centric, “push” monologue (or to read the written equivalent).

And that, of course, is exactly what a “pitch” is.

Even the use of the word “pitch” is an expression of self-centred thinking. It’s an indication of the place its user is coming from:  A short-term-focused, whatever-we-have-to-do-or-say-to-bag-this-deal mindset. (Which is bad enough in its own right, if you value successful incumbency and/or repeat business.)

Most “bid strategy” workshops I’ve sat in on (i.e. not as the facilitator) are little more than pitch development sessions. The participants – and worse still, often also the facilitator or leader – bangs on about “win themes” and “silver bullets” . . . and other concepts that frequently, at root, are actually more about the bidder than the client.

The Pitchfest Litmus Test

Let me give you a litmus test to use, in a bid strategy workshop, that will hold up a mirror to the process and indicate to you whether you’re developing a genuinely client-centric bid strategy, or a self-centric pitchfest of “things you can say” in your proposal.

Here it is:

Has anybody made an utterance to the effect of, “coming up” with (some form of) a “value proposition” (which, in reality, is little different to a “win theme” or “silver bullet”)? Or, in fact, “coming up” with anything?

What will ring the client’s bell most vigorously is not your “win theme”, “silver bullet”, “value proposition” or anything else you “come up with” to say. What will really capture them is your demonstration of a deep and detailed understanding of their world, their organisation and the circumstances surrounding their intended procurement . . . followed by your identification of their related challenges and priorities, and then the alignment of a success-critical competitive strength on your part.

A long way from a “pitch”, isn’t it?

A Mind Picture to Help You Avoid Temptation

Let me implant a vision in your mind that should help you – as an individual of dignity – develop a healthy degree of “cringe factor” for the whole notion of a “pitch”.

I once witnessed an advertising agency giving its pitch for a potential new account. (Admittedly, this was quite some years ago, before the proliferation of easy-to-use digital media technologies.)

Three women in suits stood side by side in front of a small group of senior executives and marketing personnel from the prospective client organisation.

Each held up a “storyboard”. Some “happy” music started playing. With over-exaggerated grins, the three women each started bopping up and down to a jingle on a ghetto blaster while wobbling their respective storyboards, Rolf Harris-style.

And then came the truly unthinkable: They started singing.

That should embarrass you, just reading it.

Keep that picture in mind next time you suspect you may be entering into “pitch” territory – in your bid strategy workshops or even in your language or in your thinking.